Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Bantams and Pullets

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday, the new birds are settling in well although they are all still very bedraggled with all this rain.

I've just been moving Mother Goose (the hen) and her Gosling children to the Eglu, the little broody run was proving too small for them already. Lovely Hubby is going to make them a Goose House with a roosting bar for Mum when they are a bit bigger but for now the Eglu will do fine.

Campfire, you asked what is the difference between a bantam and a pullet, well a Pullet is officially any chicken that is less than one year old, when they reach one year then they are known as a hen or a cockerel.

A Bantam is usually a small sized copy of a larger bird, lots of pure breed chickens have a Bantam counterpart, which are around a third to half the size of them. Although there are now some true Bantams these are mainly bred for showing, and are very fancy birds.

Bantams are brilliant birds for smaller back gardens as they are quieter, make less mess, eat less and won't decimate your flower and veggie beds. They lay gorgeous little tasty eggs, but you do need to use two for every one hens egg called for in a recipe. They are friendly, cuddly little birds and usually make great pets for children. Some cockerels can be aggressive though as they seem to have 'little man syndrome', so stick to girls if they are for children.

So there you have it, I have Bantams, Pullets, Hens, Cockerels and a lovely little trio of Chinese Grey Goslings. We're all very birdie here in Berkshire at the moment.......Lol.

6 comments:

Hi Suei cant find the film you mentioned..Im slowly catching up im now Feb 2011.I dont know if you get to see comments made on old postings so will ask here.I love your soap and the jars of sauce and chutney look amazing any chance of a how to post.?

My little ladies are setting in well.my white star looks a bit older than the other 2, crop and comb well developed.Still no eggs,im patiently waiting,well maybe not patiently.Do you feed yours mash or pellets? x

Hi, I usually feed our birds Layers Pellets, I find the mash gets too damp and clogs up the feeders, which means the birds get to eat food which has sat damp for a while. Just a personal preference. They are both made of exactly the same things.

Yes, I do get to see all comments even from old postings although they come through to my email address for me to publish individually, so they won't appear until I do that. It's just so I can jettison the spam.

I will try to do some 'how to' posts, but at the moment I have a large supply of soap and all the jars of chutney, jams and sauces we could possibly use, so it may have to wait a while so I can take pictures of the various stages.

You may yet come across some posts that I have already mentioned how I do these things in.

hiya-hope all is well with you and yours and you're survining the rainy onslaught yet again.

I had a day out in London yesterday to see an exhibition at the V&A and thought ahh I can wear tidy clothes and it'll be respite from wellies- only to find everyone in London was wearing wellies albeit very clean ones!xx

Thank you for that explanation Sue. I had a feeling it was that but was confused as to which was what of you know what I mean.

When I lived in the Peak District I used to get little eggs think she called them Bantys, and used to love them. The lady who minded my son had them. She lived just behind the school and she looked after him before he went to school then afterwards, he used to just hop over the school wall and go to her house until I picked him up. It was a tiny school.

This is my Blog, just me writing about our day to day life on a hillside in North Wales. Along with our dogs, Suky and Mavis, our cat Ginger .... who secretly thinks he's one of the canine gang ... and a roving band of egg laying chickens that live cheek by jowl with the local wildlife.

We grow our own fruit and vegetables, selling surplus plants and edibles at the gate. We sell the eggs the chickens lay, we reuse, recycle and rethink ... and life ticks over at a pace that suits us.

It is simply the wild and wacky ramblings of a 50 something townie turned country girl called Sue, who lost her heart to a sailor and started a new life in the country .... over nine years ago. On a path that took us from Cumbria to Oxfordshire, to Berkshire and then we found our home at the bottom of a wet and windy Welsh hillside by a busy main road.

Pull up a chair, grab a coffee and relax into a world of dogs, cats, chickens, the occasional grass munching sheep ... and some pretty delicious vegan foods ... oh did I mention that I don't actually eat the eggs!!

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Our New Life in the Country is my blog.

I use it to chart the day by day, week by week, year by year goings on in mine and Lovely Hubby's life. In it I also express my views and opinions, and say what I do andoccasionally how I do it. I am hoping that this will prove to be a useful reminder for myself of how we did things, as we continue in our learning process.

If you chose to follow my practices it is assumed that you will do so with care and consideration, and question where necessary any methods or techniques I use to your own satisfaction and match them to your own circumstances.

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